PLAY WRITING
Sat, 4 May 2002, 12:03 pmKen Blowers14 posts in thread
PLAY WRITING
Sat, 4 May 2002, 12:03 pmThere are three parts to any theatrical experience: the audience waiting to be entertained; the actors ready to entertain; and the writers who provide the entertaining material that bring the first two together! This website needs a corner for home-grown writers, where they can be nutured and encouraged to write the plays you want to see.
A place where companies and producers can say: 'I'm looking for a play that would suit young people 15 to 20, older people 50 plus, or middle of the road; one act, or two or more; and goes for 25 minutes, fifty minutes, or more.
A place where writers can say: I write one-act plays with absolute minimum props, suitable for small amateur companies - general drama, comedy, and crime.
A place where publishers can trawl for new material to publish.
A place where companies can find plays to read.
What do you think, dear reader?
A place where companies and producers can say: 'I'm looking for a play that would suit young people 15 to 20, older people 50 plus, or middle of the road; one act, or two or more; and goes for 25 minutes, fifty minutes, or more.
A place where writers can say: I write one-act plays with absolute minimum props, suitable for small amateur companies - general drama, comedy, and crime.
A place where publishers can trawl for new material to publish.
A place where companies can find plays to read.
What do you think, dear reader?
Re: PLAY WRITING
Sat, 4 May 2002, 07:42 pmGrant Malcolm wrote:
>
> That sounds like these message boards. But could be something
> a bit more like the old library page on this site:
>
> http://www.theatre.asn.au/library.php3
>
> I ran into a couple of problems migrating this page to the
> new format and the search tools could be vastly improved! But
> it does allow some searching of plays along the types of
> lines you're talking of.
Something like the library page would be ideal.
> Allow playwrights to upload a copy of the play if they wish?
This could get messy if there is a rights dispute. It could expose the ITA to unnecessary legal trauma.
> > What do you think, dear reader?
>
> Some great ideas. Care to expand on any of the suggestions
> above?
Since we're discussing writers:
David Meadows, a month or two back, suggested forming a company, consisting of actors, writers, directors and technicians, to create and produce plays. Now, I personally thought this was a bloody brilliant idea because, as a writer, it would allow me ready access to a group of players. I could experiment with scenes, characters and dialogue, gradually creating a whole that would, in my opinion, have been much stronger than had I created the whole independently, in my little darkened room where I don't see anyone but my wife for months at a time. Unfortuately, David's idea seems to have gained little support and so it has fallen through.
Now, I've tried establishing workshops by myself but I spent more time arranging schedules and meeting people in coffee shops than I did workshopping or re-writing. It defeated the purpose of the entire experiment. I learnt a lot from it and met some incredible people, some very talented actors, but it was far from being dynamic (here's the 90 page play, can we arrange to meet in two weeks? No? Three? How about four?).
If there was some way where writers could gain ready access to players (and directors) for readings and workshops* then local writers, actors, directors and the audiences would all benefit immensely.
Any suggestions?
* I'm aware that Stages (do they still exist? The web page is 3 years out-of-date) runs/ran workshops.
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